Intro
*What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “born again? “Freak,” Cult,” “Crazy,” “Weirdo.”
* Lady whose mom said, “Oh no! Please tell me you are not one of those born agains!”
* “Born again” has been done a great disservice by Christians, especially those on certain “Christian” networks. It gives that weirdo vibe to many, especially, I’ve learned, in the Northeast.
So, I want to settle the issue for our hearts. What does the Bible, namely Jesus Himself, mean, by “born again”? Why did Jesus choose that weirdo phrase? What does “born again” reveal about God? What does “born again” reveal about you and me? Does “born again” carry hope that can help us, improve us, free us, set us right? What does “born again” have to do with the meaning, significance, and joy in life?
Why this series “The Born Agains”? To Explore what God means to be a Christian.
Why “Born Again?” 1) We have seen hundreds people come to saving faith in Jesus in past few months! I want you to understand exactly what’s happened to you. 2) On a different note, I have considered how the majority of our nation considers themselves “Christian.” Yet, you look at the moral heart of our nation, and something’s off. So, how many consider themselves Christians, but are not? Let me get personal. I love you enough.... I’m for your joy and soul. How many of you, perhaps, consider yourself Christian, or even religious/spiritual, but have never been “born again?”
John 2:23-3:21
Vs. 23-24
First, we find here that Jesus is God. There is only one other place where one is mentioned of knowing the hearts of men. And that is spoken in a prayer of King Solomon about God Himself in 1 Kings 8:39. This is a subtle allusion by John to tell us that Jesus is God. God Himself uses “born again,” even while people may mock it.
Then a crowd that “believed” in Jesus’ name when they saw his miracles. This is not saving belief (context). They just believed he was somehow connected to God because they were impressed with his miracles. A prophet of some sort. We’ll come back to that. So don’t ever think if you could just see a bona-fide miracle you will believe in Jesus. Miracles aren’t enough. The devil himself knows and believes that Jesus is a miracle-worker. And with that context, we now meet a man named Nicodemus.
John 3:1-2
Nicodemus was one of those in the crowd who believed in Jesus as a miracle doer, not Messiah. Jesus knew this too, despite how flattering his words are to Jesus. It reminds me of Pastor Allistair Begg’s words, when he said, “Flattery is like perfume. Sniff it. But don’t swallow it.” And we’ll see that Jesus didn’t even sniff it, much less swallow.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Many today hold the Pharisees in a negative light, as the ultimate hypocrites, ultimately responsible for Jesus crucifixion. But in the first century they were highly respected for their deep devotion and scholarship. They studied the Law (Torah) for hours every day, praying for hours every day, tithing on everything they owned. They were passionate about obeying every letter of God’s law (ten commandments) and living the perfectly moral life.
We find that Nicodemus wasn’t only a religious man, a Pharisee, but “a ruler of the Jews.” As one commentator put it, in 21st Century terms, Nicodemus was kind of like a U.S. Senator or Supreme Court Justice. In other words, he was an elected official who sat on a religious council of about 70 men who judged various disputes and settled legal matters to keep the Roman government from getting involved. Only the most highly respected, esteemed, leading men would be elected to such a prestigious position. // He comes to Jesus at night, perhaps not wanting to be seen publicly because it might cost his religious reputation and political standing.
Question shouldn’t be why did He come to Jesus at night, but why did He come to Jesus at all? Emptiness. Rule-keeping/religious perfection to earn God’s favor, political power that he worked so hard for, high esteem from not just the people but his colleagues, and perhaps he’s still empty. Something’s still missing. I like Nicodemus because he’s nearing the end of himself and risks to explore Jesus further. That’s a great first step. Coming to the end of yourself and exploring the claims of Jesus..
John 3:3
Oh no He didn’t!? Yes He did. Jesus just cut him off. And little do we realize that Jesus is backing him, and you and me (all humanity) into a desperate corner when he does so.
Why didn’t Jesus let him get his question out? Because John already told us that Jesus “knew what was in a man.” And what Jesus saw in Nicodemus’ heart was a heart far from God, though externally a very religious man. A “good” man, but a man separated from God. And though he didn’t finish his question, if his question lines up with two other encounters Jesus had with people in the book of John, his question was going to be, “How do enter into the kingdom of God? /How do I inherit eternal life? How must I be saved?” This is the ultimate question that runs like lava underneath our life’s crust. A search for meaning, significance, freedom from guilt and shame, something “more” that life, religion, and trinkets do not give us. But he had been seeking answers to life’s ultimate questions in his religion and rule-keeping/good works.
In case you feel like your “goodness” or religious background or spirituality or charitable giving, makes you right with God. Consider Nicodemus again. Nicodemus’ religious prowess is Pope-like. He was a conservative. He held right doctrine. He followed the commandments of God with precision. And then followed the 613 law traditions added by the Pharisees to God’s commandments just to cover their bases. For example, God had commanded in the fourth commandment to “Keep the Sabbath” (do no work or you would sin). Then they added rules like the following just to cover their bases:
• A woman was not allowed to look into a mirror on the Sabbath day. Because she might see a gray hair and pluck it out, and that would be considered work.
• No-one was allowed to take vinegar when they were sick. Because they might gargle it, and Pharisaical law viewed gargling as work on the Sabbath.
• You were not allowed to tie a knot on the Sabbath, UNLESS you could tie it with one hand. Using both hands would be considered work.
• You were not allowed to spit on the ground on the Sabbath, because saliva on the dirt was considered mortar. And that was work. But you could spit if you spit on a rock. Don’t miss!
Why do I share this? Because Nicodemus kept these kind of laws... with precision! If the church had given little gold stars for perfect church attendance, he would have blown everyone out of the room combined! Many of you may be thinking like this: “If I do my best to keep the ten commandments, if I try hard, do the best I can, treat people right, God will be pleased and accept me. He has to!” This is how Nicodemus is thinking too. But instead, Jesus said, “Unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God.” In other words, “No gold star for you, Nicodemus. You’re nowhere. All you’re sacrifice, devotion, tithing, attendance, impressed your mom, but not God. You’re lost. Nicodemus, despite all the goodness and religion in the world, people who are not born again go to hell.”
So what does Jesus mean by “Born again? Born again means “a radical and complete new spiritual beginning that comes from above.” “Born from above” is another translation. Meaning God must do this in you. It’s a radical work of God to move you your spirit-self/heart from death to life; a new beginning, a new radical start, a new creation, not a better creation; a new heart, not a better heart; a new spirit, not an improved spirit. Jesus makes clear that this is the only way to enter the kingdom, to be saved. If you are not born again/born from above, you cannot enter God’s presence. Period.
John 3:4
As one pastor put it, Jesus is speaking theology and Nicodemus is hung up on gynecology. This is a pattern in John. But we can see two realities at play here in his response. 1) He’s seemingly taking Jesus words literally to avoid the penetrating truth.. And all his personal sacrifice, political views, and spiritual beliefs, and religious efforts are in jeopardy! Jesus threatens everything! This is what Jesus does to us. So he starts looking for a way to wriggle out of this. Anyone? 2) Jesus is speaking of the spiritual. And Nicodemus is beyond that so he keeps it physical, external. He’s too high-minded to deal with “spiritual.” That’s weirdo. He wants to keep it external so it doesn’t get too close to him. He doesn’t want to get into that awkward “spiritual” talk. Nicodemus wants to keep it “sports and weather.” But he has a spiritual problem, not a religious problem or behavioral problem. It’s deeper than religion and behavior. It’s a spiritual problem.
That’s the point. This is what you have to understand before you truly are “born again.” Your problem is not external/behavioral, but spiritual. You are spiritually separated from God. You have a spiritual problem long before you have an emotional, mental, relational, or behavioral (EXTERNAL) problem. But people don’t want to deal with the spiritual problem, just like Nicodemus. They want to deal with the externals.
I read a story a couple of weeks ago about a family in Richmond, Virginia. They visited the statue of the Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, on Monument Avenue. The statue shows Robert E. Lee sitting atop his horse (Show picture: http://tinyurl.com/d5dmzp7). The caption on the statue is only one word, which is displayed on the plaque. It simply reads, “LEE.” As the little boy read the caption, “LEE,” and studied the statue, he turned to his father, and asked, “Dad, who is that man sitting on top of Lee?”
This is how I feel as a preacher of Truth sometimes. And I wonder if this is how Jesus feels with Nicodemus. People miss the point. Or worst, people only hear what they want to hear. I’m convinced that’s why Jesus said often, “Those who have ears, let them hear.” Why? We can be quite skilled at cutting and pasting around Truth, with what we feel is truth, with our own version of Truth. We will keep issues in the external realm instead of it penetrating the spiritual realm.
I remember when I was a youth pastor back in the mid-90’s. I would have parents call me and say, “Oh Jarrod, please talk to my daughter, she is sleeping with her boyfriend. Please talk to my son, he is drinking on the weekends.” In two years, I never had a parent call me and say, “Jarrod, please talk to my kid, I don’t know if they are born again/saved!” When the spiritual is what dictates the behavioral. A dead spiritual heart is their child’s problem, not the behavior.
And this translates into adulthood. People want to deal only with the external realm of “fix my life”—externals. Sin is s a spiritual problem. Rebellion is a spiritual problem. Wickedness and evil is a spiritual problem. Everything flows from the spiritual within us.
So my question is this: Are you like Nicodemus, focused more on fixing the externals (behavior, thinking, feeling, and relationships) perhaps than the internal (spirit)? Do you tend to kind of brush off thoughts or talk of your spiritual life because it’s “weirdo” or awkward? But what Jesus has declared with two words, “Born again,” He’s saying that is your chief problem. Problems in your life, marriage, emotions, is not a personal problem, but ultimately a spiritual problem.
John 3:5-7
“Water and Spirit”–Jesus is pointing Nicodemus to a truth he (Nicodemus) holds, but hasn’t taken a hold of him...spiritually. He’s a ruler of the Jews, a brilliant teacher of the Old Testament. So Jesus points him to the prophecy Nicodemus knows of Ezekiel 36:25-27: Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
Jesus is showing how “born again” is the fulfillment of that prophecy. Nicodemus is stunned. That’s why Jesus tells him (vs. 7) “Don’t marvel that I said to you that you must be born again.” Nicodemus is speechless. He can’t compute it. He says in verse 9: “How can these things be?” Jesus says verse 10: “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” In other words, “What? What do you mean? You are THE teacher of Israel. You know Ezekiel 36 because it is the great hope of Israel. And that hope is before you!”
Water. This is not baptism. Salvation doesn’t come from water on the skin. You have to stop thinking externals. Jesus is speaking of spiritual cleansing. Being purified spiritually. So Jesus is saying, “Unless a man be cleansed and purified within, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus said it’s all an inner work by God through the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The Spirit cleanses, purifies, washes clean the shame and guilt and sin from our spirit.
John 3:6a “Flesh”
This is where Jesus reveals his astonishing low view of human nature. It reflects back to 2:25—“And he did not entrust himself t them, because he knew all people.... For he knew what was in man.” In other words, Jesus didn’t have faith in their faith. He didn’t believe their “belief.”
I remember a Christian video clip I watched years ago where the speaker was telling a story (I won’t mention names), and looked at the camera and said something along the lines of “It’s not just about you believing in Jesus. Jesus believes in you!” What? I don’t think so.
What held Jesus back from fully giving himself to them? Or “believing” in us? FLESH! Flesh refers to human nature without God. Galatians 5:19-21 (The Message) shows us: It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on.
When I, or the Bible, mention that “no one is good, no not one” (Psalm 14; Romans 3), it doesn’t mean that we are all as evil/sinful as we are capable of being. It simply means that sin/wickedness/evil permeates our very souls and everything we do. Even religion. Practically speaking, think about yourself in traffic. Think about those thoughts you had that shocked even you.
Ephesians 2:1, 4 declares we are “dead in our trespasses and sins.” And despite the fact that Nicodemus is alive—breathing, feeling, behaving—and also brilliant, politically powerful, and deeply and devoutly religious, Jesus sees him dead. He’s like a corpse decorated in make-up. He looks alive with his religious make-up, but he’s spiritually dead. He needs to be born from above.
People are born physically alive, but spiritually dead. That’s why every human being, even the most religious, has the capability to do great wickedness and evil (even in the name of religion!) Evil and wickedness lurks within us (Jeremiah 17:9). I remember a minister telling me this when I was a new believer in Jesus. “All people are inherently good, we just need to help them believe it and express it. First, this is contrary to God’s declaration, Jesus own words, about the nature of humanity. Secondly, think about it: Our very own thoughts, fantasies, anger/revenge fantasies, tendencies and reactions and regrets, in which we’ve even shocked ourselves of what we’re capable of thinking and doing, makes that thinking questionable.
Dr. Timothy Keller shares about a stunning 1983 interview of Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes with Ye-Heil De-Nur. De-Nur was a Jew who suffered great atrocities under Adolf Eichmann, one of the Nazi architects of the holocaust. Eichmann had been found, arrested, and taken back to Israel for trial for his crimes against humanity in the death camps. Material witnesses were sought to personally testify against him. Ye-Heil De-Nur was one of those witnesses. In the interview, Wallace showed a video clip of De-Nur walking into the courtroom, seeing Eichmann in the glass booth, and then De-Nur immediately collapsing to the floor, weeping, and sobbing. Chaos broke loose in the courtroom in that moment.
Wallace asked De-Nur what happened? What made him break down and fall to the floor sobbing? Memories? Loss? Hatred? Shockingly, De-Nur answered that that wasn’t the case at all. He said that he was utterly overcome by the comprehension that Eichmann was not a monster, but a normal human being. He said, “I was afraid about myself.... I saw that I am capable of doing what he did.”
Keller picks up on this and says before we write that era off, and the Nazi’s too, of being subhuman and beneath us, and therefore irrelevant, we need to consider that it wasn’t just a few Eichmann’s who were architects of atrocities, but “the complicity of vast numbers of people across a society that has produced much of the world’s best scholarship, science and culture.”
This is where the road leads when the spiritual is denied. This is what lurks in a heart and spirit that is dead, and not truly born again. And if you disagree, then that’s exactly why you’ll never understand what it means to be “born again,” or probably never be “born again.” You’ll continue in externals.
John 3:6: “Spirit”
This is what’s called “regeneration.” You need more than just forgiveness and cleansing. You need LIFE! You were born physically alive, but spiritually dead. Your heart for God is dead. So being born of the Spirit—regeneration—is the supernatural experience of salvation where your dead heart comes alive with the desire for God!
That’s why Jesus compares it with flesh. You and I are naturally “flesh.” Born that way. It’s not about being “Born that way.” But being “Born Again,” from above. You had no power or ability to birth yourself physically from your mother’s womb. In the same way, you have no power or ability to birth yourself spiritually. It is purely the work of the Holy Spirit. God says to your dead heart, “Rise, and come forth” as Jesus did to Lazarus. And your heart, your spirit, goes from death to life and cries out in repentance and faith in Jesus. That’s new birth. That’s “born again.”
And there’s no doubt your heart is new, that you are born from above, because you become a new person, not a better person. You have a new spirit within you, not an improved spirit within you. You cannot “better” a dead heart, or improve a “dead” spirit. You take on a whole new way of seeing, thinking, and believing. This will come in some ways immediately, and in others in a process of spiritual growth (spiritual infancy to adulthood).
Being born from above, a new creation, permeates your politics, how you view suffering, how you handle money, how you treat your spouse, and enemy. You miraculously you go from debating truth, to hungering for truth. You go from seeing the Bible as irrelevant, to the Bible being your necessary daily food. You go from being stingy with your money, to sacrificially giving your money. You go from desires to please the self, to desires to please God. You go from loving sin, to growing in hatred of your sin. These are the marks of new birth in your soul and life: You desire God and the things of GOD!
Every salvation is a miracle. For someone to go from an enemy of God to a lover of God; from someone who was a devout atheist to devout follower of Jesus serving in the local church is a supernatural miracle of God through the Holy Spirit upon a person’s heart. That’s why Jesus went on to say: John 3:8: “The wind [Spirit] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
This is what gets me out of bed every morning. This is why I agonize over every sermon I preach and seek to preach it as if it’s not only my last, but yours. “Where will the Spirit wind blow today???!!!” (Your mission too!). That’s why we must be ready to share our stories of hope in Jesus as a way of life because we never know how His Spirit is blowing in someone’s life.
John 3:9
It’s almost as if you can hear Nicodemus say: “Oh Jesus. I can’t accept this. It goes against everything I’ve ever thought, believed, studied, read, practiced, and even taught! There has to be more. There has to be something I have to do too. It can’t be that simple. (And in verse 12, it’s as if Jesus said, “That’s part of your problem. I’ve made it simple for you. It’s simple enough for a child, but not for you. You can never truly understand because you think you’ve already and always understood! Oh, Nicodemus. You are brilliant, but not as brilliant as a child.” Perhaps that’s your problem?)
But Nicodemus, is caught up in this part of it too: “Oh Jesus. All the candles I’ve lit. All the prayers I’ve recited. All the confessionals. All the sacraments. All those BORING church services (just knowing that just the sheer boredom that nearly killed me had to make me right with God!). And all those religious emotions, feelings, and activities... You mean?” “That’s right Nicodemus,” says Jesus. “Filthy rags apart from faith in Me. And there are no filthy rags in heaven (Isaiah 64:6). Your religion was performed with a live body, but a dead heart, and dead spirit. It’s all about you being born again. ”
Are you ready to deal with the spiritual? That some of you are religiously alive, physically alive, but spiritually dead in your hearts? Are you ready to go from external to internal?
Conclusion
For the sake of time, let me land it in the following verses as Jesus unfolds exactly HOW you can do just that---be born again. Jesus ties it all together in Himself.
3:13: No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Christmas! Jesus points to the fact He, God, became flesh to witness to this Truth of new birth. Then Jesus brings it home and gives this powerful analogy for how the worst of us, and the most religious of us, can be born again from above:
3:14: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up...” Jesus has pointed Nicodemus, and you, to the cross. He points to Numbers 21 in the OT. The people were sinning, complaining, blaming God for their circumstances. And God sends a plague of deadly snakes to punish them for their sin. Everyone got bit. As they lay in pain and dying, they began to repent by confessing they deserved what they got. And God told Moses to take a pole of brass with a serpent on it, and hold it up in the middle of the camp. And everyone who looked at it would be healed and saved instantly. (Imagine those their who might have thought: That’s silly. That’s too simple. Serpent on a stick? Freakish, cult-like, freaky.” Yet people who realize they’re sinners and death is what they deserve before a holy God no longer see it that way. They get desperate.)
How so would people be saved by looking at the serpent on the bronze pole? 1) They would have to own the fact that their sin caused their pain and coming death. 2) They would have to have faith in the God who told them to look upon the pole, and then obey him by doing so.
Jesus is saying, “That is a picture of me on the cross for you. I will be made sin (serpent always stands for sin), lifted up to die. It’s your sin that I’m taking on, your pain, and your death. And.....
John 3:15-16: “...whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
